One of the worst political metaphors is the notion of political capital, as it suggests the ability to do things is a scarce resource that must be hoarded and preserved. At the risk of pissing off the physicists, we should use the phrase political momentum, since one political success provides the opportunity for another victory. Not always, of course–some goals simply can’t be reached. And momentum can dissipate due to inaction (and ‘underaction’), something overly cautious Democrats allow far too often.

This bring us to something that, in other times, probably would have been a bigger story: the Biden administration’s decision to eliminate all defense advisory boards. These are panels that are one part sinecure and one part lobbying opportunity. There are a lot of well-connected people on the boards (some of whom will return to the political system if given the chance). Towards the end of his term, Trump packed these boards with a bunch of his odious supporters. As a result, Biden pulled the power move of eliminating all of the boards. Poof! Gone!

Like I mentioned, a lot of well-connected people just lost a very influential position, yet it barely registered. Even the douchebags at Politico only mentioned it and then moved on–and this is entirely the kind of thing readers of Politico care about. Momentum! If only Congressional Democrats would figure this out.

Like a rolling stone…